Keep Your Mouths Shut Soldiers…

The people who served with Bowe Bergdahl knew he deserted. The Pentagon knew he deserted and Obama probably knew it (he does watch the news…) so why would soldiers be told to keep quiet about it?

A soldier claims that he was told by his chain of command to not say anything about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walking off an Afghan base in 2009.

Retired Army Spc. Josh Fuller told Fox News Wednesday that he was told to keep quiet about Bergdahl leaving his post and getting captured by the Taliban. CBS DC

Perhaps it was commanders trying to keep the lid on poor morale in their unit (a speculation, I do not know what their morale was), or perhaps they did not want a black mark on their records. But the Pentagon never listed Bergdahl as a POW and since the Pentagon HAD to know he was missing it is unlikely that anyone thought he was anything other than a deserter.

I don’t know why soldiers would be told not to talk about it but that is a curious thing. It was widely known among the soldiers involved so it is not like they were keeping secrets from each other and America knew he was missing so that was not a secret.

So why tell people to keep quiet?

Fortunately, many of those who were given these orders are no longer serving and they are breaking their silence. Their voices add reality to the story and prevent the Obama regime from getting away with more lies.

Susan Rice said Bergdahl served with honor and distinction and perhaps she is on to something. Betraying America is honorable to liberals so in her mind Bergdahl is a hero.

When (if) this ever gets investigated I would like that investigation to extend to finding out who gave the keep quiet order and why.

That would be interesting to discover…

Death before dishonor.

If you can’t live by that then don’t serve.

With Honor And Distinction?

SGT Bowe Bergdahl is back in US control and I am happy for him and for his family because he is home. He is an American citizen and it is good for him and his family that he is back.

However, Bergdahl is not a hero and he is not a Prisoner of War who happened to be repatriated. He deserted the military when he walked (or rode) out of the compound and into the wilderness. He was not captured while on a mission or on guard duty or even out on an authorized absence. He was captured because he left his unit without any intention of returning and he was captured by the Taliban.

Of this there is no doubt.

Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl left behind a note in his tent saying he had become disillusioned with the Army, did not support the American mission in Afghanistan and was leaving to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Paktika Province on the border with Pakistan and took with him a soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing materials, but left behind his body armor and weapons — startling, given the hostile environment around his outpost. New York Times

Members of our military had to stop their missions to look for this guy and some of those brave troops died while doing so. The Pentagon and the political hacks can say otherwise but the people who had their boots on the ground are saying something different and they, above all others, know what went on.

Bergdahl is in a military hospital recovering from his ordeal, an ordeal of his own making, and will soon be reunited with his family. He needs time to heal. He needs time to acclimate and he needs time with his family.

Then he needs to be held accountable for what he did. The military must investigate what he did and must be honest with the citizens of this nation, particularly those who serve and who have served, about the circumstances. If he is found to be a deserter, and there is a lot of evidence to show just that, then he needs to be punished. Yes, he was held captive for five years but that was because of what HE did.

[note]Military members know we are not bargaining chips and that we will not be negotiated free. Troops will try to rescue us but we will not be the objects of negotiations. That is just part of the package. But Obama played it differently in order to put the VA scandal on the back burner. He thought he would be hailed as a wonderful guy for getting a deserter back but most are not looking at it this way. He has left a Marine to rot in a Mexican prison while negotiating with terrorists over a deserter. One last thing. The Taliban murder captured soldiers. Why is Bergdahl alive?[/note]

All levels of government in this nation routinely hold people accountable for things they have done even though they have suffered hardship as a result of their own acts. If you rob a bank and run into traffic and get hit by a car ending up in a coma for six months they don’t say you had a hard enough time and let you go.

Bergdahl took a decision to walk away from his unit and he was captured because of that. Now that he is home he needs to be held accountable here for what he did.

He cost us a lot. Barack Obama negotiated with terrorists for his release and circumvented Congress to get it done. Obama broke the law to get Bergdahl back and in the process made it an even more dangerous place for us and particularly for our troops who will now be seen as bargaining chips.

Obama needed to put the VA scandal out of the news so he quickly acted on this deal (that has been in the works for some time) claiming that Bergdahl’s health was in question. Susan Rice said it so it must be true. This is the lie used to break the law and bypass Congress. The truth is this was politically motivated to refocus our attention from yet another Obama scandal (he learned well from Bill Clinton). I am surprised Rice did not just blame it all on a You Tube video.

Time will tell if the Pentagon has the testicular fortitude to do what is necessary to hold Bergdahl accountable. I would not hold my breath as the Pentagon has been turned into a paper tiger under Obama. It must be politically correct in order to serve its master. Given Obama’s love of the Muslim faith and given the Bergdahl family seems to be sympathetic to it, it is doubtful Obama will want to pursue any action against the deserter.

Many folks are angry at what Bergdahl did and at what Obama did to get him released. Going into a midterm election this will not sit well with voters. Obama won’t have to worry about the active duty folks because he will lose their ballots but millions of veterans will go to the polls.

Politics aside, Bergdahl must be given ample time to recover and then he MUST be held accountable.

He dishonored himself, his unit, the military and the nation (no wonder Obama negotiated for him) and he is a disgrace to the uniform he wears.

Susan Rice can say he served with honor and distinction but that does not make it so. The honorable are those who stayed and did their jobs in the face of danger.

As well as those who risked (or lost) their lives trying to rescue the man who turned his back on them and his nation.

Related:
McClatchy DC
I J Review

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

More VA Problems Exposed

The single payer, government run health care system known as the VA is in a shambles. It has been a boondoggle since its inception but has gotten worse over the years. While Democrats will claim that the problem is the large influx of patients because of the wars they voted for, the reality is the system did not run well when we were not at war.

The problems at the VA predate Obama (and Bush though Democrats think the history of bad starts with him) and as such Obama does not shoulder the blame for the problems there. He shoulders the blame because they are still there and are worse.

Candidate Obama blasted President Bush and the VA system and President elect Obama promised to fix things. He did not fix them. In fact things are much worse now and Obama is responsible for that. He was aware of the problems (despite his claims to the contrary) and he did NOT fix them as he promised.

There is now a news story that the problems at the VA in Phoenix are much worse than originally reported. Forty veterans are reported to have died while on a secret waiting list designed to allow administrators to claim great patient wait times and collect bonuses. Veterans died while waiting for care as administrators received bonuses for the great jobs they were doing. The Phoenix VA, according to an Inspector General’s report, has as many as 1,700 veterans awaiting care but who are not on the official waiting list.

This means that they might never receive care. Additionally, their absence from the list is designed to show the VA in a favorable light.

For more on how the scheme works read this article about the VA in Texas. There are supporting documents to show the top person cancelled and manipulated appointments in order for him and other executives to receive bonuses. Fifty percent of their bonus rating is based upon patient wait times so they manipulated those times to appear as if they were in compliance. They did not care about the veterans, only their own money and careers. These folks should end up in jail.

The Texas run system even received an award despite being investigated for these criminal acts in the past. There is overwhelming evidence that the top person was involved and made the changes but the conflicts were blamed on low level employee error which was than touted as something discovered and fixed (it was not). Looks like these folks follow Obama’s example of leadership; blame others…

There is another report that involves the VA but is about police brutality and not directly related to the scheduling scandal (but part of a corrupt culture nonetheless). An elderly vet was beaten and stomped by VA cops and suffered a stroke that subsequently resulted in his death.

America, is this how we should be treating our veterans?

Ideally, veterans should receive their care in the open market (with the bill paid for by the government) and not be restricted to government run socialized medicine. But if that will not happen then the VA should hire veterans to run its facilities. Veterans who have health care experience should be hired to work in those facilities. And veterans who served as military police should be police officers in the VA. These folks know what their fellow veterans have gone through and what kind of treatment they deserve.

The government should also remove all bonuses. This scheme only encourages people to cook the books.

If I ran any VA hospital I would not accept a bonus and I would not cook the books. I would demand the highest standards of care and fire anyone who did not comply.

If the government can’t run a system that has been in place for decades and only involves a small part of the overall population why does anyone think government run health care for all is a good idea? What makes anyone think that eventually Obamacare will be any different?

Government run care will always end up like this. People become a burden to the system and are abused because of it.

Look out America; you will soon be subject to this.

Let’s pass a law that all members of Congress and the Obama regime MUST receive their health care at a VA facility with no VIP treatment whatsoever.

I bet it would get fixed then… (Big Dog salute to Marcus Luttrell)

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

We Honor Their Sacrifice

Today is the day our nation has set aside to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. We honor the men and women who died to keep this nation safe and free.

As you go about your day remember what it is really all about and say a prayer for the families of those who left us way too soon so that we might be free to enjoy not just this day but every day.

Remember

Keep those who still serve in your prayers until they are all safely home. Pray we do not have to honor them on a future Memorial Day.

Thanks to Mr. Heller who gave me permission to use his cartoon back in 2009.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

Perhaps The Focus At The VA Was All Wrong

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel discussed the problems at the Veteran’s Administration and indicated that this is something that should have been looked at “years ago.” Hagel indicated that the problems did not start with current VA Secretary Eric Shinseki but have been a problem for a long time. Perhaps he was vaguely blaming Bush…

General Shinseki was nominated by Barack Obama to head the VA and carry out Obama’s pledge to fix the broken VA bureaucracy. If the problems are no better or are worse than Shinseki has fallen short of Obama’s goal. It is fairly simple, the issues were not fixed.

Secretary Hagel said that these are things that should have been looked at years ago (which is what Obama pledged) but it appears as if the focus was not in the right place in the Department of Defense.

Instead of working to fight and win the wars we are engaged in and instead of working to ensure the best system available for our wounded warriors the DOD focused on integrating homosexuals into the military. A lot of time and effort went into repealing don’t ask, don’t tell to allow openly gay service. Now the SECDEF is indicating that the military should review the transgender ban

The problems at the VA have been going on for a long time, and there is no doubt about this as Hagel has said so. If the DOD spent as much effort looking into these issues as it did (and is still) on integrating homosexuals it is possible the problems could have been fixed.

Instead, the warriors took a backseat to a politically motivated agenda that was designed to garner more votes from the homosexual community. The DOD played politics with the lives of those who were wounded while honorably serving in order to appease a political constituency.

It is a lack of leadership that allowed this to happen. They lost focus on our warriors in order to focus on politics.

The VA is in bad shape. It is government run health care and it is full of problems where no one is held accountable. The lives of our wounded warriors are at risk because of a massive government system that is poorly run and lacks leadership.

This is the future for everyone under Obamacare.

And no one will be held accountable for that either.

Unless, of course, we make them pay in November.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline